ESL Speakers’ Guide: How to Improve Spoken English

I f English is your second language and it takes you forever to speak colloquially, you are not alone.

Breaking the language barrier is one of the biggest challenges faced by many ESL speakers (English as a second language speaker). I can totally relate because I've been down that road before.

I have to say the hard thing about this “hard thing” is that there is no clear guide as to how to speak colloquially like a native English speaker. More often than not, once you’ve acquired some basic to intermediate English communication skills, you are pretty much left alone to find your own way on this journey.

Well, this was exactly the case for me: I had to find my own way. Despite my spoken English has been decent and I never had much of the language barrier, I want to raise the bar and communicate better. As a result, I tried different things throughout the years to improve my spoken English consistently, and they’ve brought me good results.

In this article, I will introduce some useful techniques that have helped me to improve my spoken English over the course of 12 years living in Canada.

Before I start, here is the question: what matters the most in speaking any language? Many of you may think it is the accent. Well, this could be the first thing that identifies if English is your first language or not; however, you can have the perfect accent while your speech can still sound off. So what is the crucial component to sound like a native English speaker?

It’s Colloquialism.

Colloquialism, or colloquial language, is the linguistic style used for casual communication of a region or a country. If you want to sound like a native speaker in any language, you gotta learn to speak in its colloquial way.

The next question is: how to sound colloquially? This leads to my first tip.

#1. listen and imitate: learn like a baby

Think about how babies learn their native tongue. They listen and imitate. That’s exactly what we should do when learning a foreign language.

While listening, choose the right example(s). The bottom line is, to speak the right way, you have to listen to the right thing. That is, you need to listen to how native English speakers talk in order to sound like them eventually. Then, you “repeat” what you heard in the same or similar context.

Some of you may say: well I can’t remember most of what I heard. What do I do then? Don’t worry: tip #2 will give you some insight.

#2. Memorization

You can’t really improve if you don’t remember what you’ve learned; let alone apply what you've learned later on. Practice memorization certainly helps.

Here is how I do it: I compile all the colloquial phrases I heard on a daily basis onto a spreadsheet. Then, I review them regularly in order to deepen my understanding. When a similar phrase came up, it rings a bell and I instantly know how to apply it.

In addition to writing things down, pay attention to the most frequently used expressions among native English speakers and memorize them (AKA: how people ‘normally’ say it). Trust me, they will come in handy when you need them the most. Through memorization, you will cut back on thinking time and will certainly sound more confident.

#3. Entertainment in English: movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, etc

When learning a language, don’t forget about entertainment. You want to make it fun instead of feeling like going through a drill.

English entertainment channels can supplement English speaking environment for those who don’t currently have one.

Beside being a language learning tool, movies are great resources for anyone to learn anything they are interested in (same with YouTube videos). Get yourself on Netflix and YouTube right now and join in the fun!

The above three techniques get you on the “colloquialism” track. As most ESL speakers may have already experienced, there are days when we just can’t “nail it”: we can’t think straight, or even spill the words out.

This is the lesser-known fact about speaking English: the English speaking muscles require workout everyday to stay “active”. If you don’t exercise them regularly, it can get somewhat rusty even after a day without using them. Here begs the question: how to maintain fluidity? In the following, I will introduce a few tips on this commonly faced issues.

#4. Reading aloud: daily

Get your momentum going everyday by reading something aloud. The reading materials can be books, articles, news, etc.

Don’t read mechanically. Read as if you are telling a story and as if you are speaking from the heart. If you have these two goals in mind, you will develop a natural flow when reading aloud and this will reflect in how you sound.

When practicing, remember to read slowly. Never rush the words. When you know how to read slowly with precision, you can speed up afterwards without sacrificing pronunciation. Also, make sure to emphasis your point in order to create the kind of understanding for listeners you desire.

#5. Push beyond your limits

During your off days when you just can’t think straight, the fluidity of your speaking will definitely decline. However, you still have the power to make it right, which requires you to put in a bit more willpower.

Just pretend you are feeling as good as usual, and push beyond your limits. When feeling stuck at your thoughts and you just couldn’t make the sentence flow, simply carry on. After 5- 10 minutes into talking, you will likely to resume your normal level of fluidity. Sometimes, you just need a few minutes to warm up till you can be fluent again.

#6. Have confidence

No one has confidence: we all need to create it within. If you are currently at level zero, you really have to “fake it until you make it”.

Putting this into context of speaking English, you need to pretend you are a native English speaker and you already speak fluently and colloquially. With this belief in mind, it instantly empowers you to bring out your A games. More often than not, you will likely exceed your own expectation.

Did you see how “fake it until you make it” work? You creates your confidence by believing English is your first language, which gives you the confidence boost you need in order to improve. When you are rewarded by the progress, you want to see it even more, which motivates you work harder. That’s how this magic formula works.

To recap, the No. 1 important factor to speak like a native English speaker is colloquialism, seconded by fluidity. In order to achieve both, there are six techniques I've introduced above.

Learn the baby’s way: listen and imitate
Memorization
Entertainment in English: movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, etc
Reading aloud: daily
Push your limit
Have confidence

Once mastered the basic techniques, it's the time to go from good to great. In the following, I will introduce a few tips to help you “elevate” your speech.

1. Find your own rhythm

Each language has its rhythm (rise and fall in syllables) and tone. If you pay close attention to how people speak, you will be dumbfounded that everyone has his or her own rhythm despite speaking the same language.

Truth is you can imitate rhythm from a native English speaker, but this can only take you so far. If this is the only thing you do to keep the rhythm, you will soon realize your English rhythm is pretty much in conjunction with your first language. If you are a Chinese person, for instance, your speech naturally carries a “sing song” rhythm.

Here is how to improve: when speaking English, keep its rhythm in mind but try to find your unique one. This won’t happen overnight and you have to work on it every single day until you "find it". This is hard work but the result will be rewarding.

2. Breath and pauses

More often than not, how you breath when speaking English affects the fluidity, even the effectiveness of your communication.

When adding pauses instead of blasting through an entire sentence allows you time to highlight your points. Simply, you do it by putting emphasis on the words that you want to stress on. In addition, pauses also help you with calming your nerves and make you sounds very organized.

3. Try not to break up sentences unnecessarily

Do you tend to break up you sentences at places you shouldn’t have, and you do so just because you got stuck with your thoughts? Breaking up is different from adding pauses. Breaking up disrupts the flow and doing it too often will affect the fluidity (and the quality) of your speech.

To avoid breaking up too often, pay close attention to your speaking habits and try not to pause unnecessarily.

4. Don’t give up easily

Improvement takes a long process. Don’t get bogged down by how slowly you progress on this journey. Sometimes when you feel you are not improving, in fact you are (just very slowly) and result will present themselves over time. Remember, getting to where I am today, I took me more than an entire decade.

The key to my success is that I did not give up easily. As you can imagine, I went through countless ups and downs, to a point where I almost gave up and settled for less. Luckily I did not. Believe me, being disciplined with your daily practice and you will see the light at the end of the tunnel eventually.

Of course, there is no limit to improvement. Till this day, I'm still doing my daily practice religiously (using techniques above) to better my spoken English and communication in general.

For those who are struggling with the language and strive to be better everyday, I want you to know I used to feel the same way when I first arrived in Canada in 2007. I did not know it would take me a whole of 7 years to just become somewhere colloquial. Little did I know, it took me about 11 years of practice to sound close enough to a native English speaker. I also want all the ESL speakers to know that everything is achievable, as long as you put your mind to it.

What are your tips and tricks to become fluent in English as an ESL speaker? Share your journey!

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's. Assumptions made within this article do not necessarily represent author's opinions. The information contained in this article is not legal advice, and is intended solely to provide general guidance on matters of interest for the personal use of the reader, who accepts full responsibility for its use.

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